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IP Milestones: Here's My List, What's Yours?

I was recently asked to give a Master Class (whatever that means, this Kat being far from being a master). The proposed topic was "Recent Developments in IP." With all due respect to the organizers of the class, the topic seemed a bit hackneyed and bereft of what the U.S. Supreme Court famously termed any "spark of creativity."

It occurred to me that a better way to consider recent developments was to put IP law and practice in the form of historical context (this Kat was a Medieval History major some time shortly after the end of that historical period). As so I decided to prepare a list of "IP law and practice milestones" from around 1970 to the present. The date was chosen as signalling the beginning of the rise of IP as a field of study as well as the time, more or less, that the practice of IP law began to seriously develop in law firms across various jurisdictions.

And so, please find my list, the result of several hours of thinking and rethinking about the most notable IP milestones and when, more or less, each such milestone began to take material shape. As the title of this blog indicates, this is merely one Kat's list and readers are welcome to offer their own. So let's take it away.

1. 1970s-- The rise of the PC.

2. 1975---The ascendancy of Microsoft, PC software and the network
effect, and the ultimate decline of the first incarnation of Apple.

3. 1976--The U.S. 1976 Copyright Act is enacted.

4. 1980--The rise of the importance of the role of IP in the U.S. (especially copyright and patent) in response to the perceived challenge from Japan.

5. 1980--Bayh-Dole Act ushers in new era of government-university cooperation.

6. 1980--Copyright protection is extended to computer code.

7. 1983--The U.S. Federal Circuit for patent and trademark appeals is established.

Well the PC did not appear before 1981, before then was the now extinct class of microcomputers. I am sure many here remember for instance numerous British microcomputers such as BBC model B, ZX Spectrum, the Amstrad series and more.

That brings the topic to the topic of fabless designhouses selling only IP such as the highly successfull ARM. Without solid IP with patents as well as trade secrets, they would not exist.

More importantly, where is EPO in this timeline? EPC73 and EPC2000 seem relevant.

Other topics: patent auctioning (Ocean Tomo et al), end of US submarine patents, discussions of PCT phase 3, the telecom patents wars, US development such as State Street, KSR and more.

1709 Statute of Anne drawn-up to settle dispute between brewers in the Colonies and eastern Europe. Fails miserably and Bud-Budvar dispute starts.

1949 UK Patents Act drawn up. Now known as the Old Act to most people or as the Old New Act to some of our mature readers. Brewers still fighting.

1977 New UK Patents Act. The New Act to most people or the New New Act to the oldies. Air still redolent with mentions of "provisional applications". Brewers still fighting. Bud claims that someone bought a few bottles on an air base and so has a reputation in the UK.

1988 Copyright Designs and Patents Act. A real desk-breaker of an act. Extremely annoying transitional provisions in relation to copyright and designs which must have been written by CIPA Finals Patents Examiners.

I miss the TRIPs agreement (was that 1994?), and of course - already memorised - the start of PCT and EPC/EPO. Just before that (1967) the establishment of WIPO. Internationally seen an interesting case to have in the list is the Remington/Improver case. Another milestone are the various harmonisation attempts of the EC: trade-marks, design rights, but also the Enforcement Directive and the Biotechnology Directive.

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